Hang on, Angie’s climbing free in the age of helicopter parenting

She is already the world’s best ­junior outdoor rock climber and now Angie Scarth-Johnson is ­nipping at a champion.

Australian 12-year-old climbing prodigy Angie Scarth-Johnson scales a cliff in Margalef, Spain. Picture: Simon Carter

She is already the world’s best ­junior outdoor rock climber and now Angie Scarth-Johnson is ­nipping at the heels of the world’s best women.

She seems destined to become our next world champion, a bona-fide rock star at the age of 12.

“She’s incredible,” says adventurer Dick Smith. “In an era of helicopter parenting and iPads, it is wonderful to see kids like Angie out there in the bush, scaling cliffs and setting records.

“It’s great, too, that her parents are willing to let her take these ­acceptable risks — she is an inspiration to young women and girls.”

Angie lives in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, and began rock climbing at seven when her parents took her to a climbing gym.

“Straight away, as soon as I started climbing, I knew that it was what I wanted to do,” she says.

“I just kind of wanted to push myself to see how far I could go.”

By the age of eight, she was climbing cliffs that can take years for experienced climbers to master and at the age of nine she became the youngest person in the world to climb a grade 31 cliff.

Last year, at the age of 11, she climbed two grade 33s — a grade so difficult that only two other Australian women have conquered it. She is now considered the world’s best under-16 female climber.

Her parents Tek, a plumber, and Claudia, a social worker, now travel with Angie around the world as she attempts some of the world’s most difficult climbs.

This past Easter, Angie and her parents spent weeks at Red River Gorge in the US state of Kentucky, where she attempted two extremely difficult grade 34 climbs, a climb so arduous that only one other Australian woman has ever managed it.

The most difficult climb ever by any woman in the world is a grade 36 and 38 for a man.

Turn to The Weekend Australian Magazine for the full story and pictures.